The Morning After
by Lily Hanson
Summary: Oneshot that follows Ji's Question - Kate spends the night at the Shiba House after her first official date with Ji. Though the Shiba House is hidden away from the city, almost out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a big forest, and not found on any map, Kate learns there is no privacy.


Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers: (Super) Samurai. This is purely fan-made.

"Storm's bandages need changing. Someone's got to do it," Emily whispered and looked up at Mike. They were poking their heads into Ji's bedroom. The night before he had gone on his first official date with Kate and given how it had ended, the Rangers assumed it had gone well. Kate ended up staying the night and sharing a bed with Ji only because they had talked until the very early hours of the morning. Ji figured, instead of Kate driving home in extreme fatigue, she could sleep with him.

Literally. They had just fallen asleep in the same bed after staying up all night talking, though no one would believe Ji's story once he woke up and told them.

"I don't know, Em," Mike looked down at her, "Do you really want to go in there and risk everything?"

"Mentor shouldn't have stayed up late," Emily shook her head, "It's not my fault he still has a job to do. Besides, it's not just Storm he needs to check up on. Antonio's got bandages too."

"We can change those."

"Are you seriously telling me you don't want to mess with Mentor? You are not the man I married. The man I married would already be in their stripping off the blankets and…"

"The man you married is scared that if he strips off the blanket, there's going to be nothing left to strip."

"There are no clothes on the floor. Go in there and do it for Storm. It's partially your fault she's hurt."

Mike groaned. She was right. He sighed as he opened the door a little wider and carefully made his way across the room, over to Ji's side of the bed. For once, Mike had no idea what to do to wake someone up. Had this been anyone else, he would have grabbed them and started shaking them, screaming it was time to wake up.

Then again, Mike was usually never responsible for waking anyone up. He was always the last to get out of bed. So he poked Ji's arm.

"Storm's bandages need changing," he whispered. He turned to the door and saw Emily had her head in her hands and she was shaking it from side to side. Obviously he wasn't doing so well. "You do it, then."

"Nahuh," Emily whispered and shook her head, "The last thing I need to see is all of Mentor. Plus, Kate's like my aunt. That would just be awkward."

"Then let me do this my way."

"At this rate, Storm's going to chew her bandages off before you wake him up."

"Put the cone on her."

"No! She hates it."

"You spoil her."

"I have to. She's cute. Now wake him up."

Mike tried again. This time he poked Ji's arm a little harder. Just as he applied pressure, he thought he heard a fog horn blowing right in his ear. His eyes widened as he turned to Emily, "What the hell was that?"

"Kate snores. Don't worry about it."

"That was Kate?" Mike leaned over and looked at the sleeping woman next to Ji, "Holy crap, Em!"

"She's no louder than you are. C'mon, Mike, wake him up!"

"Mentor," Mike poked Ji again, this time jabbing into his cheek, "C'mon, dude, wake up."

"Pull off the blankets."

"But…"

"It's just Ji's chest. It's not like you haven't seen it before," Emily groaned. Mike nodded his head and pulled down the blankets. To his surprise and delight, Ji was wearing a shirt. Looking over and focusing his eyes a little more in the dark, Mike could see the top of a shirt on Kate.

"They're dressed."

"They are?"

"Yeah."

"Then let me show you how it's done," Emily flicked on the lights, ran into the room and jumped on the bed. She landed right between Ji and Kate, startling them both out of their sleep. "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! You guys have a lot to do!"

"Emily?" Ji looked between him and Kate and saw the yellow Ranger had been their alarm clock, "What the hell? Have you ever heard of sleeping in?"

"There's no sleeping in today!" Emily grabbed Ji's arm and pulled, trying to get him up and out of bed, "Storm's waiting for you, and Antonio's waiting for you, and we all still need breakfast! You can't slack off on your duties as mentor just because you spent the night with a girl!"

"I have no duties," Kate put her hand up, "Can I go back to sleep?"

"Nope. On second thought, you're a much better cook that Mentor. You can make breakfast while Ji takes care of my dog. C'mon, you guys are already late."

"And I thought I had it bad," Mike chuckled as he watched Emily scurry around the bed, moving both Ji and Kate around as much as she could so they weren't tempted to go back to sleep. Normally when Emily woke Mike up, he could expect a few early morning kisses at least.

Ji and Kate realized their time for sleep was done and got out of bed. Ji left the room, grumbling the entire way as he went to take care of the injured dog and Samurai, while Emily dragged Kate off to the kitchen.

As Kate walked in, she saw the rest of the house, minus Antonio and Jayden, was waiting for her. They were sitting around the table, just chatting, until she came in and all eyes turned to her. A few smirks graced their lips. Kate knew they wanted to know how her night had gone.

"Next time, we go back to my place," she muttered as she pulled out a frying pan, "There's less of an audience."

"Ooh, you're already talking about next time," Serena smirked, "So was it good?"

"Was he good?" Kevin asked with a mischievous look in his eye.

"They didn't have sex," Emily told the blue Ranger, "They're probably waiting until they know each other a little better."

"Uh… thank you, Emily?" Kate frowned. How could she know that?

"Doesn't mean they didn't do anything else," Mia said. She got up and leaned against the counter, watching as Kate started to mix the pancake batter, "Are we going to have to pry it out of you?"

"You kids need to mind your own business," Kate said. "What Ji and I do should stay between us."

"That's cute," James laughed, "She thinks she has a right to privacy."

"That's really cute," Serena nodded her head. "Kate, let's get one thing settled right off the bat. As soon as you walk through our doors, your business is our business."

"We'll see about that."

"Hey, don't give me that look," Serena put her hands in the air, "I'm on your side. I'm trying to look out for you. If Ji did something to make you uncomfortable or anything, I need to know so I can kick his ass." Everyone else is on team Ji. They're just being nosy for the sake of being nosy."

"Hey, I'm team Kate," Emily crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm curious. Not nosy."

"You're all nosy," Kate shook her head.

"Just tell us if Ji's a good kisser or not," Mike asked as he came into the room, carrying Storm in his arms. He passed the dog over to Emily and looked to Kate with a grin, "We gotta have some blackmail on the old man."

"I don't kiss and tell," Kate smirked and pour some of the batter into the pan, "If you guys want the answer to that question, you're going to have to find out for yourselves. Now off to the dojo. Breakfast will be ready by the time you finish training."

"Find out for ourselves?" James frowned as he and the Samurai started to make their way out of the room, "What kind of answer is that? How do we find out?"

"I see only one option," Mike said, "One of us is going to have to kiss Ji."

Instantly, everyone else stuck out their tongues in disgust. Mike sighed.

"I know, I know, but the poor guy couldn't even ask her out right."

"How do you know about that?" Serena asked.

"I have my ways, and I know Ji needs all the help he can get. He'll lose her if he's a bad kisser. So, someone's going to have to bite the bullet. Not it!"

"Definitely not it," Kevin shook his head and backed away from the group, "I'll do anything for my team, except this."

"Mia should do it," Emily giggled, "It's not like she hasn't kissed everyone else. Kevin, Mike, she almost kissed Jayden. There was that time you kissed Serena…"

"I will kill you in your sleep," Mia growled to the youngest Samurai, only making Emily giggle a little more.

"You kissed Serena?" James asked. He turned to his fiancée, "What?"

"Mia was a little confused," Serena teased, "There was no way I would let my friend in pink down so I took one for the team."

"She kissed me," Mia said to James, "While she was dating you."

"You're a better kisser," Serena assured him and wrapped her arms around him.

"I don't know how I feel about this."

"It was funny," Emily whispered to James, "Very, very shocking in the moment, but funny looking back."

"And, it's just more of a reason Mia should kiss Ji," Mike smirked.

Kevin pulled Mia into his arms, "She's not kissing anyone else. How about we just assume Ji's a good kisser?"

"Fine," everyone else sighed. They were in the dojo and started to pick up their swords and chose their partners. As they walked to the mats to warm up, Serena nudged Mike.

"So, you're saying Ji struggled asking her out?"

"Oh yeah," Mike smirked, "Big time."

"How do you know?"

"I have my ways."

"Will you tell me?"

"Turns out, James left a few cameras sitting around the house while he was taking care of Terran. He said it was to keep an eye on babysitters and Nighlok. You know, a combination nanny/Nighlok cam."

"James knows about this too?"

"We turned the cameras on once Ji left the house," Mike smirked.

"And where would these cameras be?"

Mike and Serena both jumped as they heard a voice from behind. They turned around and saw Ji standing with his arms crossed.

"Cameras?" Mike asked, hoping he could get himself out of this mess, "Did you think I said cameras? I meant…"

"I think, what you meant to say, is that you and Serena would love to spend the day cleaning up every inch of this house."

"James set up the cameras!" Serena pointed to her fiancé and then threw her hands up, "I'm just learning about them now and I am just as disappointed as you are, Ji."

Serena crossed her arms and gave James and Mike a disappointed look. Ji knew exactly what she was doing and shook her head.

"Everyone, training today has been cancelled. Instead, we will be cleaning this house from top to very bottom. C'mon, Samurai, it's a lot of work and very little time."

With a heavy sigh, Mike, Serena, and James (who wasn't happy his own fiancée had ratted him out) walked out of the room while Kevin, Mia, and Emily all laughed. Ji turned to them and gestured to the door.

"C'mon, the work will go faster if you three help out. Many hands make light work."

"But we didn't do anything!" Kevin whined.

"Do this look like a face that cares?" Ji pointed to his face and then out the door.

"It looks like a very caring face," Emily said and stuck out her lower lip, hoping Ji would fall for it. He shook his head.

"Not this time. All of you get busy."

As they walked off, whining and grumbling, Ji headed over to the kitchen and saw the table had been set for two and Kate was just finishing with the pancakes. She put one on each plate and invited Ji to have a seat.

"Cute kids."

"They aren't all mine," Ji chuckled, "Two of them are your responsibility."

"I guess we'll just have to share the load, then," Kate smirked. "You know, the only way to beat them is if we work as a team."

"My thoughts exactly."

"Oh, and next time, we turn off the cameras and spend the night at my place," Kate took her seat and started to cut her pancake. No nosy kids and no alarm clocks."

"Sounds like a plan to me."


End file.
